The 'Inflation Reduction Act' cost $740 billion and recent analyses show its green-energy giveaways will cost taxpayers nearly $5 trillion by 2050.
Overstatednypost.com said this
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Why we checked itTwo specific dollar figures — the original $740 billion price tag and the $5 trillion long-term cost projection — are concrete and verifiable against CBO or other analyses.
What we foundThe '$740 billion' figure for the IRA's original cost is a recognizable shorthand but conflates revenue raised with spending authorized; the '$5 trillion by 2050' figure overstates the best available upper-bound estimate, which is $4.67 trillion — not 'nearly $5 trillion' — and comes from a single libertarian think tank's upper-bound projection, not a consensus of analyses.
Sources checked
- Cato Institute Policy Analysis No. 992 (Fisher & Loucks, March 2025) — primary source for the long-run cost estimate; upper bound is $4.67T by 2050, not '$5 trillion.'
- Congressional Budget Office / Joint Committee on Taxation — official score of the IRA at passage; $369–$383B for energy provisions over 10 years; $891B total authorized spending.
- U.S. Department of the Treasury (official government source) — cited '$5 trillion' as the IRA's *benefit* (reduced climate damages), not its cost.
- Goldman Sachs — independently estimated $1.2 trillion 10-year cost; corroborates cost growth beyond CBO but well below $5T.
- Tax Foundation — estimated ~$1.16 trillion from 2025–2034; independently confirms cost escalation.
- SmartAsset, WBIR, Reason, AgWeb — multiple secondary outlets corroborating the '$740 billion' label at passage, though this conflates revenue with spending.